Difference Between Burial and Funeral

Burial and Funeral are two terms that are often confused due to the similarity in their meanings. Actually, there is some difference between the two terms. Burial is the practice of keeping a person or an object into the ground. This act is accomplished by digging a pit or a trench, and then placing the person or the object and finally covering it.

On the other hand, a funeral is a ceremony conducted for celebrating, remembering or sanctifying the life of a person that had died. This is the main difference between burial and funeral. On the other hand, burial is not a ceremony, but it is an act.

It is very important to know that funeral ceremonies differ according to the beliefs of the different religions and cultures. In other words it can be said that a funeral ceremony practiced in a certain country need not be the same as the funeral ceremony practiced in another country. This is an important observation to make regarding the performance of funeral ceremonies.

It is interesting to note that the word ‘funeral’ is derived from the Latin word ‘funus’. Funeral rites are at least 300,000 years old. There are several types of funerals such as Buddhist funerals, Christian funerals, Hindu funerals, Islamic funerals, Jewish funerals and Sikh funerals among many other varieties of funerals practiced across the world.

The primary reason for burial is that the human body will decay after death. It is interesting to note that the burial practices are undertaken in a bid to respect the dead. The bodies are buried in a bid to prevent the moving about of ghosts and spirits. Burial is done with an intention of bringing the relatives and the friends of the dead together. These are the main differences between burial and funeral.